LSO receives Community Health Pinnacle Award from Mattapan Community Health Center

[On April 24, 2010, Dr. Lisa Wong accepted the 2010 Community Health Pinnacle Award on behalf of Longwood Symphony Orchestra at Mattapan Community Health Center's 14th annual "Rock the Boat" Gala]

I am proud to accept this award on behalf of Maestro Jonathan McPhee and my 120 colleagues in the Longwood Symphony Orchestra. We are practitioners of music and medicine and Heal our Community through Music through three major programs:
• By playing in shelters, hospices and senior centers
• By giving lecture performances that demonstrate creativity at the intersection of the arts and sciences
• AND our signature program: By sharing our concert stage at Jordan Hall with outstanding local nonprofit organizations such as Mattapan Community Health Center to help them build new relationships, get the word out, and grow. Since we started this program in 1991, we have worked with 38 different organizations, and have helped raise nearly $1 million dollars for our community’s health.

About six years ago, I met Greg Bulger and Richard Dix, who many of you know well. Back then, they shared with me their vision to support health and the arts in our community—a vision from which they have never wavered. It was Greg who suggested that I get to know Mattapan Community Health Center.

I have been a pediatrician for over 25 years. One thing I love about my profession is that special feeling and electricity that you feel when you walk into any well-run healthcare organization—an energy that radiates from people who care--people who are working to make a difference: in the life of a child, in the life of a family, in the life of a community

This is an energy that is palpable.
THIS is the energy I felt when I walked into Mattapan Community Health Center the very first time and when I met Dr. Azzie Young.
It is the energy I feel every time I visit the health center.

Azzie’s vision was to use our Longwood Symphony concert together to announce the start of a new campaign – a campaign to build a much-needed new facility to meet the health needs of the people of Mattapan. It was a huge success.

Since then, I have watched Mattapan with pride and have attended every Rock the Boat event—I’ve even played violin at some of the VIP receptions—and now I applaud you as your dream of a new facility becomes a reality.
I am proud to have played a part in the remarkable work of Mattapan Community Health Center and I am proud to be part of the medical and musical fabric of our Boston Community.

I’d like to close with a few words to live by from my pediatric and my musical world. First, I’d like to quote from Robert Fulghum’s “All I Need to Know I learned in Kindergarten”,
• Play fair.
• Share everything.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together
• Warm cookies and cold milk –and a good gala--are ALL good for you.

To these I’d like to paraphrase two thoughts from “All I Need to Know I learned in Orchestra Rehearsal” taken from last week’s rehearsal with conductor Jonathan McPhee.

• When there is more than one musical idea going on in the music, if everyone only thinks about his own part and plays it loudly, it won’t sound very good. Listen to each other’s ideas first, then put the music back together. Now you will listen for each other and hear how the parts are in harmony.

• When you are looking at a difficult passage, don’t look up to the note and wonder if you will get there—your fear will hold you back; instead, aim beyond that note and you’ll be sure to land on it--squarely, securely --and in tune.

Don’t look back, Mattapan Community Health Center – keep on striving, reaching beyond your notes and being in tune with the community.

Thank you again for honoring me and the Longwood Symphony Orchestra with the 2010 Community Health Pinnacle Award.